Are We There Yet?: Blue Ridge

Sorry I didn't post last night - all the hosts got together last night and had dinner at the Lodge to say good bye to one of the hosts that is leaving this week (Tuesday, I think). Anyway, we all went to eat and the Lodge was swamped - and understaffed. The waitresses asked if we could lend a hand and bus tables for them - so all of us girls pitched in and started cleaning tables - we worked for about 2 hours just as fast as we could. It seemed like just as soon as we would get one table done there would be someone sitting at it and another two needed to be cleaned. Now we are talking about three dining rooms - there were four of us girls and we worked our little buns off! The good thing about it was - we helped the girls at the restaurant when they needed us - and I really didn't mind. Plus, I slept good last night!!! However, by the time we got home all I wanted to do was climb in the bed and relax - I only read for about 15 minutes before it was lights out and sleepy time for me.

The store was not that very busy yesterday morning, but I did have one really good sale - over $100.00 - so that made my deposit look good. The host that came on duty after me had a repairman coming to his unit here in the campground, so when the guy got here I went back over to the store and covered for him while he came over with the guy working on his refrigerator. I only made a couple of sales while he was gone and they weren't that big - but at least we are helping each other out. While I didn't have people in the store I went into the store room and cleaned and straightened and label crates so we would know what is in them. It was something that really needed to be done and it looks soooooooooo much better now - I don't know if anyone else will notice, but I think it looks better.

I had promised a couple of days ago to post pictures of the site where we are and I hadn't done it yet - today was an absolutely beautiful day and so I thought I would get those pictures for you. If you look closely in this one you will see that lamp that Dan made for outside along with our plant that we bought for the table. Yes, you can see Sam and Jessie walking around too.

This is out near the road - These are the daffodils that we planted - the pot was already here - I think it probably had some kind of fall flower in it and the other host left the pot (that's why it has a hole in the side - weather). Anyway, we figured we could just use the same pot and plant our daffodils in it - conserving. We also planted some under the host sign but they aren't quite blooming yet. But we do have our "Daschund crossing" sign up and if you look real close you can see the solar lights that I gave Dan for Christmas - they really do work and it's nice to see them as you are coming in at night.

This one shows the lights better along with our "Happy Easter" flag and my daschund sculpture that Dan gave me for my birthday a couple of years ago. It goes with us wherever we go.

Dan decided for some reason that he wanted to fix breakfast outside on the grill today - so while I was taking my shower and getting ready we cooked outside. It was really pretty good - food tastes so good when you don't have to cook it - and there is just something about cooking outside. Anyway - it was good and then I helped by cleaning up the dishes.

As I said earlier, today was an absolutely beautiful day - temperature was about 68 degrees and sunny. So, we decided we would ride over to Blue Ridge and go shopping - we have been looking for a lamp for the dining room table. We had one that we were using, but we really didn't like it - it was one of those "make do" kind of things. Anyway, we had decided that we would wait until we got up to the mountains and see what we could find. Now, Crystal, there is NO way you could have ridden on the roads that we rode on today - you would have been sooooo car sick - if you think you got sick on highway 28 in Franklin - well, let's just say that was a piece of cake compared to the road today. Dan even complained that he was tired of driving on a curvy road -but we really didn't have much choice at that point - we were on our way home. However, while in Blue Ridge we walked around in some stores - I was about ready to give up in finding a lamp that we liked when we went into a store that had different booths in it - now this was not with used stuff or antique stuff - just one big store divided up. Anyway, upstairs we found a lamp - and not just any lamp - the exact match for the lamp we bought in West Yellowstone and have on the table between our chairs. We could hardly believe it. While we were out west we had gone back to the store we bought the original lamp in to get another one, but they had already sold it - so to be able to find the exact match was pretty awesome! So, we had a successful trip.

We got home around 7 tonight and our neighbor host brought us over a loaf of homemade rye bread fresh out of the machine - boy oh boy! is it ever good!!!!! Dan ate the rest of his roast that he had cooked over the fire last week and I ate a slice of bread (we ate lunch late, so I really was not hungry). He is in the bed now reading and waiting for me to finish up.

Tomorrow, I think we are going to go into Franklin to church - we have really missed our church in Franklin and we decided since it is only about an hour and a half away that we would go in as much as we can (when we aren't working on Sunday) and go to our old church. No one knows we are coming so I will be anxious to see the response from our friends there.

Oh, by the way, this is a picture I took on the road back home from Blue Ridge - we had to stop at a pull off so the pups could go out - and I thought you might enjoy seeing it. Trees still aren't blooming yet - but I'm sure it's not far away since today was the first day of spring!